The night I met Sidney Poitier-in Albany!

From my childhood, Sidney Poitier was an idol of mine. I was 12 when he became the first black person to win a Best Actor Academy Award for his role in ‘Lilies of the Field’ (1963).

It had been 24 years since Hattie MacDaniels became the first black person to win an Oscar for her iconic supporting role in ‘Gone With the Wind'(1939).

Anyway, by 1981 I still held Mr. Poitier in high regard, especially after his movies ‘To Sir With Love’ (1967), ‘In The Heat Of The Night'(1968), and ‘Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner'(1968). I was doing well in my television news career, and I was co-anchoring the weekend news on ‘News Center Six’. I had also become friends with UAlbany student Gina Poitier, who just happened to be one of Sidney Poitier’s daughters from his first marriage. One day I visited Mrs. Poitier in her home in Stuyvesant in Columbia County, and Gina gave me a tour of their lovely and gracious home. Gina attended parties at my apartment on State Street and we socialized quite a lot. During one of my mother’s visits Gina joined Mrs. Screven and I for dinner at the Beverwyck Restaurnt, then one of Albany’s poshest eateries.

Gina told us when she graduated that year from SUNY her father was planning to attend and we would meet him. But I couldn’t believe the ‘Great Star’ would come to ‘Smalbany’, as we used to call it.

But sure enough, May 1982 arrived. Gina told us her dad was indeed coming and planned a lavish dinner party in her honor. Her friends could not believe this, but Mr. Poitier rented the entire dining room of the the Hilton Hotel in downtown Albany. On the night of the dinner party I arrived a bit late because I co-anchored the 6 o’clock news at the Niskayuna studio.

I recall walking into the hotel dining room and spotted a long table with about 30 people, most of whom I knew. Gina came toward me and escorted me to the end of the table, and there seated was the iconic persona of Sidney Poitier! She made a formal introduction, I shook his hand, he smiled that ‘movie star’ smile, there were pleasantries, and then I kinda floated over to my seat at the table. You cannot imagine how proud I was to meet Sidney Poitier. He was in his mid-50’s then, but he had lost none of his youthful ‘movie star’ presence.

During the meal I caught myself glancing over to him, watching the ‘Great Star’ laugh and interact. Suddenly, during dessert, Mr. Poitier got up and walked toward me. I couldn’t imagine he was actually coming to me, but that’s what happened. He stopped next to my seat, shook my hand again, and said his daughter had told him nice things about me and he wanted to know how my career was going. I have to tell you I’ve never been known for being at a loss for words, but in that moment looking into Sidney Poitier’s face, I could barely produce a viable sentence. In fact I have no memory of what I said. Bummer. But I do remember someone clicking a camera furiously as we chatted.

As the evening progressed, music was piped in and people began to dance. And there was the great Sidney Poitier up on the floor dancing, like a scene out of ‘To Sir With Love’. In fact, every time I looked at him I imagined a scene from one of his films. It was a very special evening, one that I have never forgotten.

He is now 88 years old, but every time I see Mr. Poitier receiving an honor, or lending a moment of gravitas to any event on television, I think about that special night at the Hilton in downtown Albany.

In case you were wondering, Gina, who was engaged to be married at the time, and I had a parting of the ways. And that happened before I ever got to even see the photos taken of me and her celebrated father. It would be a joy, all these years later, to have those pictures as a momento of that encounter with my American Idol.

Ken Screven

12 Responses

Ken – Obviously some friendships/relationships cannot be mended, depending on what transpired, but perhaps enough time has passed where she might appreciate hearing from you and smile for the sweet trip down memory lane that involved her and her father?
Food for thought:https://www.facebook.com/gina.gouraige

I enjoyed watching Sidney Poitier’s films as well, being in the same generation as you. I’ll never forget his famous line from “In the Heat of the Night”, so authoritatively and sonorously enunciated: “They call me MISTER Tibbs”.

what a great and vivd story Ken of your night with an Icon – you painted the story wonderfully, and after all of these years to know this about now only adds to my level of respect that I have for you. I used to hang out with Michael Poitier and like you went to the home(s)remember you had a series of houses linging the road to the main house…I do hope that you and Gina reconnect if for nothing else but a hello, how you doing type of conversation – if given the opportunity do as you always do and that’s speak from the heart and you’ll for certain touch her heart maybe enough to get one or two of those pictures.

why does Ken keep blaming “poverty?” IT is a statistical fact, no matter what your race, that if you have a mother and father, living and working in the home with the children, the chances of the children getting an education and not being in poverty, jail, on welfare etc are in favor of the children being successful. We have to stop blaming “poverty.” My family, with me as an eight year old, came to America. We were financially “poor” but had parents that worked hard and made us pay attention in school, be home at night and respect authority. As long as the left and liberals keep blaming the plight of the black people in AMerica on “racism” and ‘poverty” we are going to have a bigger mess than what we have now in the cities.

And as long as right wing tea baggers keep denying the deep seated impact of systenatic racism in this country, then nothing will improve. Putting your head in the ground won’t make it go away. You clearly have only one side of the picture. And by the way, this comment has nothing to do with the Sidney Poitier post it’s connected to.

Sigh. Even this thread, with your touching story and great memories, had to be hijacked by yet another professional right-wing troll intent on dividing the people of this country against each other. How discouraging.